London, July 23 (BridgeNews) - U.K. economic growth in 2001 will slow to around 1.8% this year, the Ernst & Young ITEM Club forecast Monday. ITEM, which uses the Treasury's own model of the economy to produce its forecasts, said that growth would slow due to the weakness of world markets and the strength of the pound.
ITEM said that the UK authorities had to take steps to weaken the pound, and it advocated coordinated intervention by the Bank of England, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.